Palin's next inteviewer: Hannity

Sarah Palin will be retreating back to friendly ground next week for a two-part interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Published September 12, 2008 4:42PM (EDT)

It's not too surprising that the McCain campaign would send Sarah Palin to friendlier climes for her second interview, considering how poorly she performed when being interviewed by ABC News' Charlie Gibson. It's not even surprising that she'd go to Fox News, since her very presence on the ticket is an attempt to appeal to the Republican base, and Fox obviously has that audience. But, boy, does the McCain camp's choice of interviewer for this next go-round speak volumes.

Palin won't even risk sitting down with one of the network's straight news anchors. Instead, she'll be interviewed by committed partisan Sean Hannity.

If you've ever listened to the network's standard spiel about balance as delivered by one of its publicists -- and I have -- you'll know that Fox draws a distinction between its straight news programming and its purportedly more opinionated shows and anchors, like Bill O'Reilly and Hannity. So it's particularly notable that Palin won't be talking to, say, Brit Hume or Chris Wallace, who would probably be friendly but might toss out a few genuinely tough questions. Hannity, on the other hand, can be counted on to ask why the Democrats and the liberal media are such awful, awful people.

The interview will be broadcast in two parts, on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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